Cape Canaveral drones criticized as costly, ineffective

August 5, 2013|By Mark K. Matthews, Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Though it's best known for rocket launches, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is now home to another type of aircraft: military-style "drones" used to spy on drug smugglers trying to reach Florida from the Caribbean.

Since 2010, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has maintained a small base there as part of its growing effort to expand surveillance along U.S. borders — and increasingly for other purposes as well. Logs show the pilotless aircraft in Florida "supported" other law-enforcement agencies about 100 times in the past year on missions that range from routine patrols to ship surveillance.

But now, an odd-couple mix of budget hawks and privacy advocates is seeking to reduce or eliminate the agency's fleet of 10 drones, which have cost taxpayers at least $466 million the past several years. Critics say the program — including the two Cape Canaveral aircraft, which had only one major drug bust in 2012 — is a costly boondoggle in search of a mission.

One analyst with the Center for International Policy, a left-leaning Washington-based think tank, said drones are an "utter failure" in trying to stop people from entering the country illegally so operators must validate their existence by finding other work, such as doing drug interdiction with other agencies.

"What they have done to justify their mission is to expand it," said Tom Barry, who in April published a report on the drones. Especially worrisome, he added, was increased cooperation between CBP and the U.S. military. "This is an entry point to breaking down the barriers between the military and domestic law enforcement," he said.

But Lothar Eckardt, who oversees the drone program at Customs and Border Protection, says the Cape Canaveral drones have proved their worth, contributing to five busts around the Dominican Republic in 2012 that netted about a ton of marijuana and nearly 2 tons of cocaine.

A return trip to the Dominican Republic this year yielded similar results, he said, as the drone aided a mission that forced smugglers to jettison about 2,600 pounds of cocaine worth an estimated $198 million.

And Eckardt dismissed concerns by privacy advocates that the pilotless aircraft could be used to "spy" on Floridians because they are not assigned to conduct domestic operations.

"Our mission is not to go looking in your backyard," Eckardt said.

The Guardian drones based at Cape Canaveral are technological wonders: $18 million aircraft with a 66-foot wingspan that can stay aloft for 20 hours and reach altitudes as high as 50,000 feet, all the while transmitting live video images of everything below them.

Unlike military drones used in Afghanistan and elsewhere, these are unarmed. But several times a week, an aircraft buzzes away from the Brevard coastline, heading out over the Atlantic and then south to the Caribbean on the lookout for boats carrying drugs.

Though it's a long commute, the restricted air space around Cape Canaveral — courtesy of the U.S. space program — allows drone operators to avoid other aircraft during take-offs and landings. And the lengthy flight path gives CBP an eagle's-eye view of hundreds of miles of ocean teeming with ships carrying cruise passengers, freight, fishermen and — sometimes — drugs and people who are not U.S. citizens.

The effort hasn't come cheap: CBP has spent at least $410 million developing its fleet of 10 drones, manufactured by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, and roughly $55 million on operations and maintenance from 2006 to 2011.

A 2012 study conducted by an internal watchdog at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security found that CBP had not "adequately planned" for its drone fleet, including having enough ground control equipment. The agency also needed to transfer about $25 million from other programs in 2010 to cover funding shortfalls in the program.

And other than anecdotal evidence, the drones' impact on illegal immigration or the drug trade is unclear because CBP did not provide figures on either. Eckardt said the 2012 Dominican Republic mission was the only major bust that the Cape Canaveral drones assisted that year.

That didn't stop the U.S. Senate from including funding for new CBP drones as part of the massive immigration-reform package it passed in June. And U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., unsuccessfully sought additional money for a "dramatic increase in the number of unmanned drones that would be flying out of Cape Canaveral," according to his office.

Nelson has vowed to keep fighting for the money, arguing that attempts to smuggle in people illegally as well as drugs via the Caribbean will increase if the Southwest border is secured.

"If you've made the land border almost foolproof, what do you think is going to happen?" Nelson asked. "Just like water, if you dam it up in one place, it's going to try to go around."